Lewis Hamilton 'not great enough' as F1 Singapore GP pole gets away

Lewis Hamilton has revealed that tweaks made to his Ferrari tipped it over the edge as he missed out on a potential Formula 1 pole position in Singapore Grand Prix qualifying. 

Seven-time world champion Hamilton looked the driver to beat in qualifying after going quickest in the first and second parts, but he could not repeat his searing pace when it mattered most during Q3. 

Hamilton was seen fighting his Ferrari on both his Q3 runs as he fell 0.123 seconds shy of Max Verstappen’s poletime, and was also pipped to second place by Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc who improved at the last. 

A frustrated Hamilton admitted he went too far with the changes he made to his SF-26 in his bid to claim a first F1 pole in over three years. 

“We made some changes going into qualifying. The car was feeling so much better, and I really felt like she had more in her. So we were just pushing her more and more through the laps and through the sessions,” Hamilton explained. 

“Q1 and Q2 were awesome. We got to Q3 and snaps in Turn 1 and 3 put me two tenths down. The rest of the lap was good, and then the last lap, just again struggled with snapping. 

“So I think there's a real fine line with our car where it's over the edge or under the limit, and finding that sweet spot is very, very difficult. I think I probably had it in the first two [parts of qualifying].

“But you have to look for the progress of the track, the grip coming up, and so you have to kind of react to that. In hindsight, maybe I shouldn't have. So it wasn't great enough for myself.” 

Hamilton put the ‘snappiness’ of his Ferrari down to balance, having described the team’s 2026 challenger as having a narrow optimum performance window. 

“I think it's just balance. The car felt good. I think my team, the engineers, did a fantastic job, as well as the mechanics, between the sessions,” he added. 

“I think the car felt amazing in Q1 and Q2, and when I finished the laps, I was like, "She's got more in her." And the only way in order to try and extract that is to try and add wing. And in doing so, I think it just tipped it over the edge. 

“It was only like one hole or something like that, but it was just on the knife point, and after that then the car was just snappy, and none of the laps in Q3 are any good. So, I'm grateful to be third, to be honest, given that those laps weren't very good.”

Hamilton has reason to be optimistic after he gained three positions off the line in Saturday’s sprint race, though he acknowledged a repeat of his brilliant start will be difficult if it is dry for the grand prix. 

“The right side is hopefully a little bit better to start on,” Hamilton said. “It's obviously a short start, so the start that I had was obviously in the wet, so it's much different when it's dry. And I think tomorrow is dry. 

“It'd be very hard for us to beat Max tomorrow, but there's two Ferraris there, and I think we can hopefully, you know, there might be opportunities for us to work together to try and apply the pressure. 

“They're very, very quick, but I think we have the car in a good place that hopefully we can at least hold on.”